A day in the life of…(part two: afternoon)

I bring my own laptop with a USB-modem for internet; it looks like a flash drive and allows me to access the internet anywhere in Uganda. Once I even called Megan from a moving car, though the call dropped pretty quickly. While my computer slowly starts, I check the kitchen to see whether there is any cold purified water, or some boiled for tea. They always mix ground fresh ginger with the tea, though I prefer the rare cinnamon. Office doors are almost always kept closed, for noise and confidentiality. I share my office with one other person and have to venture out to interact with others, unless they wander in looking for her. We are also home to the office phone, which rings many times each day and attracts a stream of hopeful users, though it is too often lacking airtime so cannot be used.

I find the working hours lonely, as I must choose between accomplishing work at my desk or wandering to seek interaction; I prefer the work and interaction to be coupled, but scheduling team efforts here is a major challenge. Lunch is therefore a highlight. Many people send their orders through a motorcycle driver, who collects food at a local restaurant and delivers it for a small fee; others bring food from home, though there is no refrigerator to store food during the warm mornings, nor microwave to heat it. Many days I join the steady trickle of employees who walk a few blocks to eat at a woman’s neighborhood restaurant. The restaurant is perhaps six square meters, if that. There is one permanent wall and three partial wooden sides. Along one small rectangular wooden table is a bench that holds 3-4 people; along the back wall a 2^nd bench for 3 near (but not along) a second small table, and in the middle an extra stool. The proprietress stands in the corner surrounded by pots, bowls, and other containers, some on tables and stools and some on the ground. You choose your “sauce” (beans, beef, fresh fish, dried fish in sauce, groundnut sauce) and a combination of “food” (white or brown rice, boiled mashed plantains, “irish” (potatoes), sweet potatoes, yams, boiled pumpkin, a solid cream-of-wheat style pudding made from ground corn). She heaps enough starch onto one plate to feed me for 2-3 lunches, with a scant teaspoon of “greens” (a spinach-like boiled leaf) and a bowl of sauce. The whole thing costs about a dollar. Runners bring clean plates and silverware or fetch soda or fresh juice from surrounding shops. Customers continuously arrive with containers to take lunch back to their work places. The volume of customers fed over lunchtime is incredible, given the size of the shop, but there always seems to be plenty of food.

Lunch is not until 1:30 or 2pm, and many people take tea (with a snack) sometime between the beginning of the workday at 9am and lunch. When I return from work when the office closes at 5, the young man working at my compound expects me to take tea (with a snack) again. Tea is usually drunk with milk and sugar, and sometimes a spicy mixture of seasoning. Snacks seem often to include samosas and or fried pancakes, or perhaps fruit or a hardboiled egg.